The Enneagram at Work

What if the key to transforming your career and leadership style wasn’t found in a strategy manual or MBA curriculum, but inside you? In The Enneagram at Work, Jim McPartlin—drawing on decades of hospitality leadership and mentorship at world-class brands like Disney, Kimpton, and the W Hotels—argues that the single most powerful currency in leadership isn’t charisma or authority, but self-awareness. Through the lens of the Enneagram, a centuries-old personality framework, McPartlin demonstrates how understanding your patterns, motivations, and blind spots allows you to connect deeply with others, lead authentically, and unlock sustainable success.

McPartlin’s central contention is that effective leadership starts from within. Before leading teams, managing conflict, or influencing others, you must understand your own emotional, logical, and instinctual drivers—the three centers of intelligence that govern all behavior. The Enneagram, with its nine types, offers a roadmap to discover these inner dynamics, identify your dominant patterns, and begin the lifelong process of transformation. He believes leadership isn’t about being in charge; it’s about being in tune.

Why Self-Awareness Is Leadership’s Hidden Superpower

McPartlin opens the book with stories from his time as a hotel general manager—moments when his authority was challenged, his insecurities surfaced, and he had to act decisively under pressure. In one crucial encounter, two senior employees tested his authority by refusing to sit where directed. Instead of reacting emotionally, McPartlin drew on his “three centers of intelligence”—asking himself, What do I feel? What do I think? What can I do? That moment of conscious integration of emotion, logic, and action changed the trajectory of his team and earned their lifelong respect.

He argues that such clarity doesn’t come naturally—it’s cultivated through tools like the Enneagram. Leaders who understand their habitual patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior are able to communicate more effectively, inspire teams, and create cultures of trust. For McPartlin, this self-awareness is not just a soft skill; it’s a replicable practice—a leadership methodology grounded in centuries of human understanding.

The Enneagram: A Compass for Human Understanding

At the heart of the book is the Enneagram, a framework of nine interconnected personality types, each representing a different worldview and motivation. Types range from the perfection-seeking Type 1 (“Strict Perfectionist”) and the empathy-driven Type 2 (“Considerate Helper”) to the authoritative Type 8 (“The Boss”) and diplomatic Type 9 (“Adaptive Peacemaker”). McPartlin emphasizes that these aren’t boxes to limit you—they’re mirrors to reveal how your personality patterns serve or sabotage you. (In contrast to tools like Myers-Briggs, which classify personality by traits, the Enneagram explores why you behave the way you do.)

McPartlin discovered the Enneagram early in his career at Kimpton Hotels, and it proved to be a revelation. Recognizing himself as a Type 6 “Loyal Skeptic,” he saw how his anxiety and constant over-preparation shaped his leadership—both his strengths (preparedness, strategic foresight) and weaknesses (worry, distrust). This awakening redirected his professional trajectory, transforming fear into mindfulness. He encourages readers to undertake the same journey, using their type’s patterns as a map to authenticity, not judgment.

Leadership as a Human Practice

The book weaves together McPartlin’s storytelling, psychology, and practical exercises to form a comprehensive guide for modern leadership. He reframes the professional world as an ecosystem where emotional intelligence, pattern awareness, and compassion drive results. As he writes, “Leaders are brokers of self-awareness.” From cleaning toilets at Disney to running luxury hotels, he’s witnessed firsthand that authority without empathy collapses—and that teams thrive when leaders combine competence with emotional resonance.

Across eleven chapters, McPartlin offers a toolbox for leaders: cultivating self-awareness and feedback, balancing the three centers of intelligence (heart, head, and gut), learning from failure (“Triumphant Failure”), mentoring others through “wing” relationships, navigating conflict by recognizing stress patterns, and finding your authentic voice as a public communicator. Each chapter builds toward integration—the ability to think, feel, and act in harmony, independent of ego or fear.

Why These Ideas Matter Today

McPartlin’s approach emerges as especially relevant in a world where leadership often equates to burnout and disconnection. He contends that productivity divorced from consciousness leads to dysfunction—what he calls “managing without leading.” The Enneagram offers leaders across all industries—from hospitality to tech—a path toward authenticity, empathy, and resilience. When you understand both your own and others’ worldviews, collaboration ceases to be a buzzword and becomes an act of unity.

Ultimately, The Enneagram at Work is a manifesto for human-centered leadership. It invites you to stop performing success and start living awareness. You’ll learn to dismantle autopilot patterns, integrate emotional intelligence with logic, give and receive feedback with grace, and build cultures rooted not merely in efficiency, but in shared humanity. McPartlin’s message is simple yet revolutionary: when you understand yourself, you understand everyone.

Core takeaway

Leadership is not a title, but a lifelong practice of self-examination. As McPartlin proves through his career stories and mentorships, the most transformative leaders are not those who command, but those who connect—from their core.

Self-awareness is not just a leadership buzzword—it’s the foundation for authentic growth. McPartlin considers it the most underrated leadership skill of all. He recounts his early struggles as a rising hotel executive when his anxiety and fear ruled his decision-making. Only after discovering he was a Type 6 “Loyal Skeptic” did he recognize how his constant vigilance served him professionally but exhausted him personally. Self-awareness is about seeing that you are not your patterns; you are the consciousness behind them.

Recognizing Your “Winning Formula”

Each of us develops a “winning formula” early in life—a combination of habits and defenses that help us succeed or survive. McPartlin’s winning formula was charm plus over-preparation. Others, like the “tough executive” or “detail-obsessed planner,” have their own versions. Over time these formulas become second nature, often overused, and eventually limiting. The goal is not to eradicate them but to recognize when they serve you and when they hinder you. Awareness—without judgment—creates freedom.

Higher vs. Lower Expressions of Type

McPartlin introduces the idea of “higher” and “lower” expressions of your Enneagram type—essentially, your best and worst selves. A Type 1 (Strict Perfectionist) on the higher side is methodical and fair; on the lower side, critical and rigid. A Type 3 (Competitive Achiever) in their best state is motivating and efficient; in a stressed state, they become self-serving and impatient. Being your higher self means being conscious; being your lower self means operating on autopilot. The aim is consistent awareness of these shifts.

Blind Spots and Vulnerable Growth

Self-awareness also means facing your blind spots—the patterns you neither see nor question. McPartlin’s candid case studies show vulnerability in action, such as young executive Adam Moiles, a driven Type 3 pilot who learns that courage lies not in ambition but in acknowledging fear. Vulnerability, McPartlin insists, isn’t weakness—it’s enlightenment. Leaders grow when they recognize discomfort as part of awareness.

Daily Practice: Breath, Observation, and Balance

Self-awareness isn’t achieved once—it’s practiced daily. McPartlin describes simple “Core Exercises”: pausing to notice your breath, observing your feelings, thoughts, and physical sensations without judgment, and self-checking your three intelligence centers. Much like mindfulness, these moments of centering interrupt automatic reactions, allowing you to respond from your core rather than your personality. He connects this to the teachings of psychologist George Gurdjieff, who said, “Man is asleep. He must awaken.”

Lesson

True leaders don’t suppress emotions or over-rationalize decisions—they integrate feeling, logic, and intuition. When you know your patterns, you can consciously choose your higher self and transform not just your performance, but your presence.

Leadership begins with humility—and sometimes that means literally getting your hands dirty. McPartlin recounts his formative experience working under Maxcine Bell, a Disney housekeeper turned executive who taught him that you can’t lead people unless you’ve done their work yourself. For thirty days, he scrubbed toilets in Orlando heat, learning firsthand the dignity of invisible labor and the empathy required to lead authentically. This lesson became the foundation for his lifelong leadership philosophy: respect and understanding trump authority.

The Difference Between Managing and Leading

McPartlin distinguishes between managing—controlling processes—and leading—inspiring people. Managing is maintaining systems; leading is expanding vision. You can and should do both, but knowing when to shift roles matters. He gives examples through Enneagram types: Type 2 (Helper) must learn that leading means prioritizing their own needs, not just others’. Type 7 (Visionary) must translate enthusiasm into structure. Leadership, he stresses, is about awareness of these patterns, not perfection.

Five Enneagram-Inspired Leadership Principles

• Know thyself: Ask how others perceive you. McPartlin recommends listing personal strengths and weaknesses honestly to uncover blind spots.
• Be curious: Replace certainty with inquiry. Curiosity fuels innovation and empathy.
• Honor commitments: Reliability builds trust and credibility—the backbone of authentic authority.
• Choose your team carefully: Diversity of personality creates balance; different Enneagram types complete each other.
• Pay attention: Conscious observation prevents autopilot reactions and cultivates empathy.

Leadership with Compassion

Through powerful case studies—including Jonathan Tisch of Loews Hotels and Dr. David Daniels of Stanford—McPartlin illustrates the difference between power and compassion. Tisch personally greets each employee by name, while Daniels reminds McPartlin that failing to acknowledge a busboy’s greeting is a missed opportunity for connection. These stories underline that effective leadership is not about commanding attention but giving it. As he concludes, leadership at its core is an act of love.

We often hear “follow your heart” or “trust your gut,” but McPartlin argues that genuine wisdom integrates all three centers of intelligence—head (logic), heart (emotion), and gut (instinct). Each Enneagram type leans toward one center, often neglecting the others. The path to balanced leadership is learning to harmonize them.

Three Centers of Intelligence

Head Brain governs logic and analysis, helping us make rational decisions. Heart Brain connects us emotionally with others, fostering empathy and communication. Gut Brain manages instinct and physical confidence. Growth, McPartlin insists, comes from noticing which center dominates and consciously activating the others.

The Five A’s of Transformation

• Awareness — Ground and observe yourself.
• Acceptance — Be nonjudgmental toward your patterns.
• Appreciation — Cultivate gratitude for learning moments.
• Action — Move forward consciously instead of reactively.
• Adherence — Commit to daily practice and discipline.

The Pause: A Leadership Superpower

McPartlin’s “Pause” exercise is elegant: stop briefly, check in with your head, heart, and gut, breathe, and respond intentionally. It’s what allowed him to calm his anxiety when meeting fashion icon Anna Wintour. He paused, balanced his centers, and led with composure instead of fear. That single pause demonstrates the power of integrated intelligence.

Balanced leaders, McPartlin suggests, resemble Julia Child—her joy, precision, and grounded presence showed all three centers working in harmony. Integration transforms chaos into creativity and emotion into action.

Feedback, McPartlin declares, is the missing piece of workplace communication. Most models fail because they ignore the giver’s and receiver’s patterns. He teaches a structured, humane method that blends logic, empathy, and clarity—a four-step model supported by Enneagram insights.

The Four-Step Feedback Model

• Observe: State the facts, free from emotion (“You were late today”).
• Interpret: Offer empathy (“Maybe traffic was bad”).
• Feel: Express your own emotion clearly (“I felt frustrated”).
• Need: Request change or collaboration (“I need us both on time tomorrow”).

Type Dynamics in Feedback

Each type gives and receives feedback differently. A Type 8 (“The Boss”) appreciates directness, while a Type 2 (“Helper”) may take criticism personally. Recognizing these tendencies builds empathy—and trust. McPartlin’s case study with Mim Flynn, his Disney coach, shows how straight talk mixed with compassion transforms failure into growth. Flynn didn’t sugarcoat his shortcomings; her honesty became mentorship.

Radical Honesty and Listening

Self-aware feedback also means listening deeply. McPartlin recounts meeting actor Jon Hamm—an archetypal Type 8—whose clear, direct communication modeled a form of radical honesty. Type 8s teach us that forthrightness can coexist with respect. For McPartlin, delivering feedback with consciousness is an act of leadership courage—it invites growth without shaming.

Application

Before any feedback conversation, pause, observe your emotional state, and balance your centers of intelligence. When you speak from your core, feedback becomes transformation instead of confrontation.

Failure is inevitable—but self-awareness determines whether it breaks you or propels you forward. McPartlin’s most powerful narrative begins with being fired from his hotel management position. After decades of fearing termination (Type 6’s archetypal anxiety), he finally faced it. The result? Liberation. He realized that failure itself wasn’t the tragedy—his fear of it was.

Reframing Failure Through the Three Centers

He processed his experience using his three centers: logically confirming his financial stability, emotionally acknowledging embarrassment and fear, and physically (gut-based) taking action—calling a friend, walking forward, moving his body. Integrating all three turned despair into possibility. Within months, McPartlin reinvented himself as a leadership consultant using the Enneagram—a career he still thrives in.

Patterns of Failure Across Types

McPartlin analyzes how each type experiences failure differently. Type 3 fears losing status; Type 4 interprets failure as lack of specialness; Type 8 refuses defeat entirely. Type 6 prepares obsessively for disaster, sometimes manifesting it through worry. Awareness of your type’s reaction reframes failure from shame to learning. (Similar to Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset research, he shows that viewing failure as a teacher ignites resilience.)

Borrowing Strengths from Other Types

After his firing, McPartlin practiced “borrowing” traits from other types—Type 3’s focus, Type 1’s discipline, Type 8’s confidence. He created his “board of directors” exercise, imagining all nine types around a table offering counsel. This creative self-coaching hack allowed him to reframe failure as collaboration with his inner diversity. He urges readers to access all nine archetypes—they exist within you, waiting to contribute.

Reflection

Failure becomes triumphant when it activates curiosity and courage instead of perfectionism and fear. Self-aware leaders see breakdowns as entryways to their core, not evidence of inadequacy.

Real leadership begins when you inspire others not through position, but through presence. McPartlin calls this accessing the “higher side of type.” He shows how the Enneagram’s geometry—its stretch and release points—offers an internal map for transformation under stress and security. Each type grows by stretching toward complementary strengths and releases into comfort zones that restore balance.

Stretch and Release in Action

For instance, a Type 4 (Intense Creative) stretching toward Type 2 (Helper) becomes generous, moving from self-focus to empathy. When releasing toward Type 1 (Perfectionist), they gain discipline and structure. McPartlin’s story of employee Adrian, a gifted yet self-centered Type 4, shows how guiding someone toward these points transforms performance and morale. Leaders who “ditch the counterfeit,” dropping all facades, inspire by authenticity alone.

Inspiration Through Vulnerability

McPartlin’s father, a modest Depression-era Marine veteran, never saw himself as inspirational, but his resilience and humor moved everyone he met. This legacy shapes McPartlin’s view of inspiration—it’s born from truth, not perfection. During the economic crash and later during COVID-19 parallels, he reminded teams not to “save up excellence for your dream job.” Wherever you are, be excellent now. That authenticity inspires more deeply than any motivational speech.

Ditching the Counterfeit

One of his core exercises, “Ditch the Counterfeit,” invites you to strip away work personas and speak your truth—whether giving feedback, addressing failure, or negotiating conflict. Authenticity reveals humanity, which magnetizes trust. He contrasts the performative leaders chasing image with those, like mentor Mark Mathews, who admitted lack of knowledge and invited collaboration. Vulnerability, far from weakness, is the hallmark of inspired leadership.